


Murphy And His Law Can Go To Hell

by TheMaraD



Category: Jurassic World (2015)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-24
Updated: 2015-06-24
Packaged: 2018-04-05 21:05:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,677
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4194885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheMaraD/pseuds/TheMaraD
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eleanor Scott, Jurassic World's lead paleontologist and a former student of Dr Alan Grant, is tasked with showing 19 year old Joan Grant, the daughter of Alan and Ellie, around the park for the week. Masrani leaves Joan an all-access pass to enjoy the park at her leisure, including the parts normally forbidden to tourists, in the hopes that it might convince Dr Grant to endorse the park.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I basically started this because two things really bugged me about the movie: 1. Why weren't there any paleontologists at Jurassic World? I know they've got live dinosaurs, but come on! I think they'd want them around as behavioural consultants or something? 2. Owen and Claire. They're going to go back to having nothing to talk about except how little they have in common right after the adrenaline wears off. They had absolutely no chemistry and didn't really seem all that attracted to one another or concerned for each other's well being.
> 
> I know the first chapter is a bit short, but I wanted to get it done and out there!
> 
> Side note: I'm also up for some help on this one. Someone to rein me in when I start going off on a tangent. I really like shiny objects.

Two small children ran excitedly down the dock, nearly knocking Eleanor Scott down. She managed to scramble out of the way just in time for their parents to rush after them. It had been ages since the park first opened and she had made her first visit, but she still felt that same excitement every day. After all, what kind of paleontologist would she be if she did not get excited about live dinosaurs?

Granted, many in her field denounced the park for its use of modified genetics in creating the dinosaurs there. Yes, the dinosaurs were likely different from the ones that had lived many millions of years ago. And yes, it was risky to work at the park. Dr Alan Grant, her own mentor, was particularly vocal about the park and its predecessor. Eleanor was the only one of his graduate students that had actually applied to the park when it had opened. It was the biggest reason Masrani had hired her, in fact. Getting an actual paleontologist, one who studied under a living legend like Dr Grant, to work at Jurassic World was nothing short of a miracle.

And Masrani was a more than fair employer - he paid well, gave amazing benefits, and always approved time off, no matter the reason. Add into the mix that she got to work every day with live dinosaurs, and she was in heaven.

Her jacket pocket vibrated and she reached for her cellphone to check the text message.

‘BE CAREFUL. KEEP JO SAFE.’

The text itself was also a bit of a miracle - Dr Grant hated technology. Eleanor was pretty sure his phone was actually older than the dinosaurs they studied. Texting and telephone calls were its only two features. In fact it was more likely that his partner, Ellie, had taken the phone from him after a few colourful curses and sent the message herself.

With a grin she sent a message back to Dr Grant assuring him she would indeed be very careful as she always was, and that there was no need to worry about his daughter’s safety. Joan Grant was now nineteen years old and, though her parents strongly lobbied against it, had decided to make this first trip out to Jurassic World as a present to herself for passing through her first year of university. Eleanor had known Jo since she was a little girl, when Dr Grant would bring her to the digs he led, and she had no intention of letting anything happen to her.

Sliding her phone back into her pocket, she grinned up at the boat. It was going to be an amazing week - she would show Jo the mosasaur, the herbivore herds, the Rex.... And it would be a great distraction from her usual days at the park. Simon Masrani had essentially given her the entire week Jo would be visiting as vacation time, she would only be called for minor things. It would be the first time in a long time that she would be able to just enjoy the park as a tourist and damned if she was not going to take full advantage of that!

Admittedly, she knew the whole reason Mr Masrani had given her the time was in the hopes of wowing Jo and therefore swaying Dr Grant into endorsing the park rather than vocally opposing it. Not that she would ever tell him, but she knew that even if Jo had the greatest time of her life, there was no way in Hell that Dr Grant would endorse the park. He might be less leary of it, but he would never set foot there and would continue his opposition. Who was she to argue, though, if it got her the time off?

“Lennie!”

Eleanor turned toward the voice and saw a very grown up Joan Grant disembarking the ship with a large suitcase. Back in her university days she had earned the nickname because Dr Sattler was ‘Ellie’ and had kept up with it because she found it entertaining to watch the reactions of people who assumed she was a man. So far her favourite reaction came from Lowery in the control room, who had knocked every plastic dinosaur off his desk somehow then tripped over his own feet trying to stand up.

“How was your trip?” she asked, after a quick hug.

“Blissfully lacking in messages from dad,” Jo replied, sighing dreamily.

“How many?” Eleanor asked, gesturing at the phone in Jo’s hand.

“I’m guessing about half of what he actually wanted to send and four voicemails.”

A laugh escaped her involuntarily. “Thank whatever gods there may or may not be for your mother.” Before Jo could do it, she reached for the suitcase and walked off toward the car she had waiting. It would take longer to drive to the hotel since the only way was a bit roundabout, but it would be less crowded and she knew Jo would appreciate the up-close look at the island. “Let’s get you checked in at the hotel, then it’s your choice what to do first.”

They manouvered around tourists and Jo slid into the passenger seat as Eleanor put her bag in the back of the jeep. “What’s the legal drinking age in Costa Rica?” Jo asked as Eleanor settled into the seat next to her.

“The same as in the US,” Eleanor laughed, “if you don’t want your father to murder me.”

“So, technically….”

“I’ll murder you before your father murders me,” she finished the sentence first, backing the car up. The rest of the drive was spent in relative silence as Jo gazed in awe at what little florae and faunae she was able to see during the short ride to the hotel. Eleanor had to stifle a giggle at Jo’s reaction to seeing the triceratopses at the Gentle Giants Petting Zoo. The Triceratops was her father’s favourite, as everyone who had ever been on a dig with him knew, and clearly he had passed that love on to his daughter. Jo practically jumped out of her seat when she saw them.

“You’re too big to ride them, you know.”

“So, find me a bigger one,” Jo muttered, still in awe.

“How about,” she suggested, purposely steering away from the petting zoo, “instead of running all over Hell’s half acre with your suitcase, we get you checked in first?”

“Party pooper.”

“Besides,” she continued as though she had not heard the remark, “your all-access pass is waiting in your room.” They pulled into the staff parking lot at the hotel at the same time Simon Masrani’s helicopter landed on the roof of the control building.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is 100% unbeta'd, so apologies for any mistakes. There's a finite number of times you can read your own words before the words run together and you stop seeing mistakes!
> 
> Also, this probably could've gone together with the first chapter. I kind of jumped the gun on posting. Oops :S

When Simon Masrani entered a room he grabbed everyone’s attention without effort. It was one of the things about her boss that drove Claire nuts, especially given that some people in the control room were easily distracted. A glance to her left at Lowery Cruthers proved her point. His attention shifted from Mr Masrani to a man she recognized as Masrani’s flight school instructor. The instructor burst out from behind and made a beeline from the elevators to the washrooms on the east side of the control room.

“Is he okay?” Lowery asked.

“He’ll be fine, he’s just being dramatic.” A big grin spread across Masrani’s face as he took in the monitors in the control room. “Tell me, Claire, how is my park?”

By now she should have expected his cutting her off in the middle of listing off profits, but it caught her off guard. What kind of CEO did not want to know about profit? Instead he asked her how the guests, animals, and employees were.

“I have to pee,” Lowery announced with his usual finesse, earning himself a glare. “But other than that, I’m great.”

“What is that t-shirt?” From the look on Masrani’s face she could not tell if he was upset or enthralled.

“Oh, I got it on eBay. That park was….”

Claire cut him off and listed off guest satisfaction survey statistics. Lowery had all the tact of an old shoe and she was not about to risk him offending their employer. “And the dinosaurs...well...we don’t really have a way to measure happiness in dinosaurs, sir, but -.”

Masrani approached the screen showing the Gentle Giants Petting Zoo. “Claire, Claire. It’s in their eyes! This little guy right here?” He pointed to a baby brontosaurus being fed by an enthusiastic little girl. “He’s having the time of his life! And so is the girl!” Then he moved to another monitor showing the guests reacting to the mosasaur show. “This is how you measure satisfaction, not surveys and laboratories.”

“Okay,” Claire muttered. Although she knew he did not intend to be, he almost came across as condescending and she had to bite her tongue to avoid saying something stupid.

“And what about our guest? Has she arrived? Is she enjoying the park?”

Dr Grant’s daughter. She knew the conversation would come around to this. “Miss Grant is checking in at the hotel as we speak. I hear Dr Scott has a full day planned for her.” A part of her wanted to doubt that he would get to Grant through his daughter, get his endorsement, but she knew Masrani was far too personable and likeable for his own good. While she could not remove her doubts entirely, she knew that if anyone could get Dr Grant onboard, it would be him.

“You’re always so formal,” Masrani laughed. “You need to lighten up a little. I’m going to have to force you to take a vacation, I think.”

“Sir, I don’t need a vacation, I -.”

“How many times, Claire? It’s ‘Simon’, not ‘sir’!”

“Okay, Simon,” she ground out, “but I really don’t need the vacation, I’m -.”

“When was the last time you took one?”

This whole ‘interrupt Claire when she’s speaking’ thing was really starting to wear on her. “I don’t see how that’s relevant.”

“Everyone needs a vacation. Maybe you should take a week or two and go visit your sister.”

“Oh, God,” she muttered. That would not be a vacation at all, it would be her sister nagging her for a week straight about anything and everything, from why she never called to her love life. Family visits were more of a holiday thing. “I think a week on a beach somewhere would be more relaxing, but-.”

“Done!” Masrani looked incredibly smug. “Before I leave the island I want you to tell me where you’ve booked this beach holiday you’re taking at the end of the month.” Her feelings on the matter must have been hard to disguise because he continued with, “you look as though you’re being punished! It’s a vacation, not a prison sentence, Claire.”

Sometimes she hated Simon Masrani, regardless of the fact that he was probably the best employer she had ever had.

“When my co-pilot comes back we will go see my new dinosaur, and after that I want you to contact Lennie and get her to introduce me to Joan Grant.”

With a nod, Claire began telling him about her successful meeting with the executives and what the brand sponsorship would entail. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Lowery’s shoulders slump, his head shaking. Hopefully he would be smart enough not to voice that particular opinion with their CEO present.

“Contact marketing.” By now he was grinning ear to ear. “Have them start working on the branding and advertisements for the park, yachts, and mainland.”

“Already done,” she affirmed. What kind of operations manager would she be if she had not already started on marketing?

“Excellent,” he breathed, watching the screens once again.

“Oh, good!” Lowery’s exclamation surprised Claire, but when she turned around she saw him running for the washroom the helicopter instructor had just vacated.

The excitement in Masrani’s eyes as he turned around and nervousness in the instructor’s did nothing to reassure her. “Now I can fly us out to see my newest dinosaur! Perfect timing!”

Claire only just managed to suppress a smile when she barely heard the pilot mumble, “depends on your perspective.” 

Masrani swept past her, pausing a few feet from the elevator before turning back to face her as she followed. “Oh, and Claire? That navy man - Owen Grady? You know him?”

“Yes, sir.” They had been set up on a blind date once and it did not go remotely well. Although they were civil enough when push came to shove, they were not exactly on any better speaking terms than before the date.

“Simon,” he corrected out of reflex, holding the elevator for her. “I would like him to inspect the paddock as well.”

“I’ll get Dr Scott to retrieve him,” she agreed.

“Perfect! She can bring Joan with her and show off our raptors!” He seemed far too excited about that idea.

Pulling out her phone to call Dr Scott, she followed them into the elevator and hoped like Hell she had a stronger constitution than the instructor and that, as Masrani had said, he was just a little melodramatic.

* * *

Lennie sat in the lobby of the hotel, waiting for Jo to finish unpacking and getting ready in her room. Every time she visited the hotel, she was amazed by the luxuriousness of it. Marble columns dotted the lobby, holograms of dinosaurs were set up on pedestals, the seats were all rich red velvet, the floor was marble with shocks of gold colouring running through, and the tables were all polished wood. Yet somehow they were able to run it charging a relatively affordable rate per night. ‘Spare no expense’ as Hammond used to say, and Masrani liked to frequently quote.

Jo had been amazed when they entered the lobby and she would give even money that the girl was up in her room, marvelling at the deep soaker bathtub and the massive pillow-topped bed. It would likely be at least a half hour before Jo came back downstairs. Without even asking, though, she knew their first stop would be the Gyrospheres. There was no way Jo would go for anything else when she had the opportunity to roll through herds of triceratopses in a human-sized hamster ball. She was on her phone, texting to make the arrangements, when the phone call from Claire came through.

“Hey, boss lady. We’re just getting settled in at the hotel,” she reported, thinking that was why Masrani had had Claire call.

“Good to know, but not why I’m calling.” There was a brief pause and she could hear Masrani in the background, but not well enough to make out what he was saying. “We need you to go get Mr Grady from the raptor pen and bring him to inspect the Indominus paddock. Mr Masrani,” she heard him correct her, “Simon, would like you to bring Miss Grant with you to the raptor pen. He thinks showing them off would be a great start to her tour.”

With an exaggerated sigh, she leaned back against the column behind her. “Owen is going to hate this.”

“I’m sure you’ll find a way to soften the blow,” came the diplomatic reply. There was no way Claire would ever give voice to any doubt over the Indominus, whether they were her own or someone else’s, with Simon Masrani standing next to her. Even if she had any doubts herself, she would never acknowledge them. Claire Dearing was far too in control for doubts.

“I’m sure I will,” she groused.

“Great, we’ll meet you there.” Claire hung up the phone before she could reply, completely ignoring her irritation, which only served to irritate her further.

“Great,” she agreed into the dead air of the phone. At least with Jo being an actual adult now the whining over having to wait to see the triceratopses would be at a minimum. She made her way to the front desk and grabbed a phone to call up to Jo and deliver the best of her bad news today.


End file.
